This invention relates to a bladed implement such as a knife, more particularly an implement comprising a handle and a blade, provided on at least a part of its length with a cutting edge and, preferably but not necessarily, a sharp tip, and which may have a number of sizes and proportions, for the purposes of being used as a defense or attack weapon (knife, rapier, machete, or the like) or as a tool, for example, for performing agricultural tasks.
A feature of the implement is that it has a blade endowed with a high degree of flexibility, capable of being adapted to small radii of curvature, which, through a simple, ingenious and safe mechanism and by means of a simple and practically instantaneous maneuver, can be endowed with the same degree of rigidity as a normal, conventional-type blade, allowing for cutting and puncturing applications of such a blade. The aforesaid flexibility means that the implement in its entirety may be transported, with complete comfort and without any danger, for example, adapted to the user's waist and, more particularly, accommodated in a sheath provided on a special belt, on which additional compartments may be provided for accommodating a plurality of defense and/or survival means.
It is well known that, from earliest antiquity, man has aspired to construct knives or similar implements whose presence would be difficult or impossible to detect and which would cause their bearer the least possible nuisance, discomfort and danger. In this respect, however, practically speaking, progress has stopped with conventional jackknives or pocket knives in which the blade can remain housed in a handle, either by means of a turning motion, or by means of axial sliding. In these implements, the length of the blade clearly cannot exceed that of the handle, nor can the assembly, with the blade folded in, exceed certain dimensions, so that it is impractical to make a tool or implement of this kind that can perform the functions of a machete or similar device. To obviate these clear limitations, various systems of telescoping blades have been proposed, but these attempted solutions have not attained practical effectiveness, both because of the very notable price increase involved in manufacturing such blades and, very particularly, because of their limited reliability.